I sometimes read or listen to the news about the 'culture wars' happening today with a little bit of wonder... the only social media platform I use is Facebook, and that only once a day to see what some distant friends have to say, so I have to shake my head when someone gets upset about different thoughts and ideas and leaves or threatens to leave FB or X/Twitter or even going so far as to say they are going to move to a different country (how many celebrities who SAID they were going leave the US actually DID leave if 'their' candidate didn't win?)
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When someone makes a comment I don't like on FB I ignore it and go to the next message... what I really don't like about FB is the list of 'people you may know' who I don't know... and the random links to sites I will never visit that are dropped in when I am on FB... I am not interested in F1 races or used cars or any other crappy sites, so I keep blocking them and more random stuff keeps showing up... oh well, such is life in the digital age
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I do have to laugh about one celebrity... George Clooney & wife live at Lake Como in France, but I just heard on the radio that he is very upset with the loss by Kamala... he has already left, at least in part, so being concerned about a US election is laughable... he is rich and lives in an exclusive area so the crime and financial problems faced by the average people in the US don't matter to him
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Also, there are the complaints about the 'free' exchange of ideas on social media
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First, Mark Zuckerberg admitted suppressing free speech
https://mccaul.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/mccaul-statement-zuckerberg-admission-biden-har...
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Then, Elon Musk bought Twitter and changed the censorship there to make the platform more equal
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Anyone may post their thoughts where they feel comfortable, but leaving a platform due to a leveled playing field would seem to be a case of not wanting any discussion of opposing ideas... oh well, if your feathers are the same I guess you will flock together
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Here is a comment (picture) I found that I think is both true and funny
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Replies
Meta won't allow some Instagram users to UNFOLLOW Trump, Vance or Melania.
Yes, too many people with hair on fire over Social media.
I honestly don't think this is a big issue!
By @Ricky336
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On this side of the pond, newspapers are dying, and legacy media channels are losing viewers. Social media is where people go to get their news. Social media has an immense power to influence a LOT of people.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/
I honestly don't think this is a big issue!
By @Ricky336=============
... Social media is where people go to get their news. Social media has an immense power to influence a LOT of people.
By @Nancy OShea
Social media indeed has a lot of influence. (Barron Trump was aware of this!) Social media posts spread like wildfire!
Nevertheless, it's still much ado about nothing!!😊
Even now, many people are making much ado about nothing regarding Elon Musk!
And if one disagrees with the narrative, well....
By @Ricky336...people are making much ado about nothing regarding Elon Musk!
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Stakeholders in the troubled car company are not amused with Musk's antics.
The White House staff are giving Elon the cold shoulder.
By @Ricky336===========
Stakeholders in the troubled car company are not amused with Musk's antics.
The White House staff are giving Elon the cold shoulder.
By @Nancy OShea
Well, what can I say...
It has nothing to do with Elon being a 'NSDAP' - that playbook is rather old. The far left tried it with Trump - He's an 'N" word and a fascist - apparently one can be both! It didn't work. That plan backfired and Trump got elected! Whoops!
Then, along comes Elon with his exuberance, who does a very emotive 'thank-you,' and here we go again. This time it is Elon, who gets accused of the same old story!
The thing to realise is, it's not about whether Trump, Elon, Hegseth (who apparently is drunk as a skunk, and drinks too much Stella Artois - Brits will get this reference), it's all about money, politics and power and for companies - appearance/image!!!
Elon defected from the light side of the force and aligned himself with the dark side, so he must pay the price!
Trump, for all his foibles, is at least upsetting the apple cart, putting the cat among the pigeons, getting people's knickers in a twist, having a bee in their bonnet...
Yep, social media has a lot of influence!!😁
By @Ricky336
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It's all about MONEY. Period.
Were it not for his $340 billion donor money, Musk never would have been invited to the dance floor at Mar-a-Lago and gained 24/7 access to Trump. Everyone who has had close associations with Musk says "he's a very weird guy" that Asperger's alone doesn't explain. Trump doesn't fancy the "weird guy" image much, but he tolerates it from Musk for the sake of money.
After 2 years, the top four lenders who financed Musk's buyout of Twitter want to see some return on their $13 billion investment.
Morgan Stanley led the charge to try & sell off $3 billion in loan debt. Even at pennies on the dollar, nobody was rushing to buy, so Morgan Stanley sweetened the deal with assurances that investors would get a $6 billion stake in Musk's AI startup, xAI Corp.
But that went to hell in a handbasket when China rolled out DeepSeek AI — a new open-source, large language model AI that's cheaper & more efficient than all other AI products. Within a few hours, the entire AI tech sector lost more than $1 TRILLION. And Morgan Stanley was forced to suspend the sale of Twitter's loan debt for the foreseeable future.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-deepseek-ai-china-stock-nvidia-nvda-asml/
Despite his wealth on paper, Musk is not in a happy place. His customers are pulling away, his investors aren't amused, and multiple regulatory agencies in China, US, UK and EU are clamping down on Musk's dubious business practices as well as human health & safety violations. Nobody, not even Trump, can save Musk from facing legal accountability & financial penalties.
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